Safe Passage announces new trustees
Safe Passage International is delighted to announce the appointment of Andrew Purkis as Chair of our Board of Trustees, as well as the appointment of Professor Francesca Klug, Lusine Manukyan and Naqeeb Saide to the Board.
Andrew Purkis, who is already one of our trustees, will take on the role of Chair from Bishop Jonathan. Announcing the news, Andrew said “I am delighted and honoured to be asked to become Chair of Safe Passage International. This is a dynamic charity with a strong board, staff team and volunteers and we have our work cut out to fight for safe routes to asylum and family reunion for those fleeing persecution and conflict. We shall never give up on this vision.”
Andrew brings a wealth of experience to the role as the former Chair of ActionAid UK and of 3 other UK charities, and as a former board member of the Charity Commission and of the Parole Board. He was also an international board member and latterly Vice Chair of ActionAid International from 2013 to 2020, an adviser to a grant-giving charitable trust, and Deputy Chair of the Ombudsman scheme for universities in the UK. A former fast stream civil servant, he has held senior leadership positions in NCVO, CPRE, and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, and been a special adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Andrew is a frequent contributor to Civil Society News and blogs about the campaigning role of charities and charity regulation.
Andrew will be joined on the board by three new trustees: Professor Francesca Klug, Lusine Manukyan and Naqeeb Saide.
Professor Francesca Klug is a visiting professor at LSE Human Rights and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University. She was a professorial research fellow and Director of LSE’s Human Rights Futures Project. As a senior research fellow at King's College London Law School, she advised the government on the 1998 Human Rights Act. Francesca is a trustee at Women for Refugee Women, was formerly Chair of Freedom from Torture and is a former Chair and trustee of the British Institute of Human Rights. She was also a commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Francesca was the joint winner of the Times/Justice award for an outstanding contribution to civil justice in 1998 and was awarded an OBE for services to human rights in 2002.
Lusine Manukyan and Naqeeb Saide are our first board members who are young people with lived experience of seeking asylum. Lusine came to the UK to seek sanctuary with her family at the age of 16. She is an international relations graduate, a public policy leader, and works as a senior policy and improvement adviser at the Local Government Association. She has been a member of various youth boards and is an award-winning campaigner. Lusine is the incoming co-Curator of the London Global Shapers Hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.
Naqeeb is a member of the Hummingbird Young Leaders Project based in Brighton. He has received numerous awards for his campaigning and community work, including Best Campaigner of the Year parliamentary award, and has performed in two plays - “Borderline” and “Welcome to the UK.” He is an advocate for young people as a member of Y7, the official youth engagement group for the G7. Naqeeb came to the UK seeking sanctuary at the age of 16.